Miri (episode)
The Enterprise discovers an Earth-like planet that was devastated by a horrific degenerative disease and is now populated entirely by impossibly old children. Summary Responding to an Earth-type distress signal many light years from Earth, the [[USS Enterprise (NCC-1701)|USS Enterprise]] discovers a planet that is an exact copy of Earth. It has the same mass, circumference, density, and atmosphere. Even the topography is identical. Beaming down, the landing party of Captain Kirk, Spock, Dr. McCoy, Janice Rand and two security men discover architecture like that of Earth, circa 1960. But there is debris in the streets and evidence that decay has been ongoing for at least several centuries, and that the distress signal is automated. Then McCoy is attacked by a diseased man – a man horribly disfigured, insane, and violent. Before Kirk can get any useful information from this man, he dies. Noises draw the landing party to one of the abandoned buildings, where they discover a terrified girl, Miri. Meanwhile, Spock and the two security guards search the ruins outside. They hear children, and are pelted with debris, but they never actually see anyone; the feral children, who call themselves Onlies, know the area too well, and are too canny. Talking to Miri, Kirk learns how the grups became ill and insane, burning and killing, and the Onlies had to hide from them until they all died. McCoy realizes that a plague struck this world, and killed most of its people. And then, on Kirk's hand, Miri finds a blemish. Kirk has the disease that killed the grups. Soon, everyone has it except Spock. McCoy begins to work, bringing a biocomputer and an electronic microscope from the ship. Spock discovers research dating back three hundred years; there was a project, with the goal of prolonging life. But a miscalculation annihilated the adults, leaving only the children. Their development was slowed immensely however, leaving them to survive on their own for the last three hundred years. However, once they reach puberty, they do succumb to the disease. McCoy surmises that within a week, all of the Human members of the landing party will succumb; sooner than that, they will go mad. The Onlies, suspicious of the crew, clandestinely steal their communicators in an attempt to foil their plans. Later, Rand, now infected with the disease and crying, seeks comfort in the arms of Captain Kirk. Miri witnesses this and becomes jealous of Kirk's attention to her. Miri returns to the Onlies and helps them develop a plan to capture Rand, thereby luring Kirk to them. Meanwhie, McCoy has discovered the organism responsible, and succeeds in isolating a substance that might be the vaccine. But without the ship's computer, it is impossible to be certain – or to know the dosage. ]] Kirk persuades Miri to help him, by revealing the secret the landing party had kept: that she, and all the children, would get the disease, and that the youngest would starve long before that. She takes him to Jahn, the next oldest child, who leads the Onlies. After a scuffle, Kirk makes the children realize they're doing what the grups did – hurting others. Returning with the communicators, Kirk finds Spock and a security man at McCoy's side. The doctor, in a move of desperation, has injected himself with the vaccine. He is unconscious, perhaps dying... and then the blemishes begin to fade. The vaccine is a success. The Enterprise departs, leaving a medical team in charge of the children, who will soon receive the care they need. Log Entries *"Captain's log, stardate 2713.5. In the distant reaches of our galaxy, we have made an astonishing discovery: Earth-type radio signals coming from a planet which apparently is an exact duplicate of the Earth. It seems impossible, but there it is." *"Captain's log, stardate 2713.6. The building Miri led us to also housed an automatic transmission station, which sent out the signal that drew us to this planet. We also discovered something else: that the blues splotches, characteristic of the unknown disease, had appeared on each of us, with the exception of Mr. Spock. There was a well equipped laboratory in the building. Dr. McCoy took tissue samples of each of us, in an attempt to isolate the organism responsible." *"Captain's log. Dr. McCoy's biocomputer and a portable electronic microscope have been beamed down from the ''Enterprise. They will be used in conjunction with computer banks on board ship." *"''Captain's log, supplement. It's the second day of the seven left to us. We've found nothing. ''Enterprise is standing by with its labs, computers, ready to assist us. There's no data, no stopping point." *"''Captain's log, stardate 2717.3. Three days, seven hours left to us. Investigation proves that the supply of food left in the area is running dangerously low. Unless something is done, the children will starve in a few months. In addition, the disease is working on each of us according to Dr McCoy's prediction. Our tempers are growing short, and we're no further along than we were two days ago." Memorable Quotes "Bonk! Bonk! On the head!" : - Children "No blah, blah, blah!!!" : - Kirk "Is this the vaccine?" "That's what the computers will tell us..." "Without them... it could be a beaker full of death..." : - Kirk, McCoy, and Spock "No, I don't feel all right! None of us feel all right! Can't you see what's happening to us?!" : - Kirk, to Miri, trying to explain the grave situation in which everyone on the planet finds themselves "Measuring the planet now, Captain... Spheroid shape. Circumference, 24,874 miles. Mass, 6x1021 power tons. Mean density, 5.517. Atmosphere, oxygen-nitrogen..." "Earth..." "Not ''the Earth. Another Earth. Another Earth..." : - '''Spock', Yeoman Rand, and Kirk "You'll have to isolate the virus. Then you two can make a vaccine." "Is that all, Captain? We have five days, you know." : - Kirk (to McCoy and Spock) and McCoy "Back on the ship I used try to get you to look at my legs... Captain! Look at my legs!" : - Yeoman Rand, to Kirk "Is he dead, Mister Spock?" "I Will never understand the medical mind." : - Galloway and Spock, after finding the unconscious Doctor McCoy "Miri... she really loved you, you know." "I never get involved with older women, Yeoman." : - Yeoman Rand and Kirk Background Information * This episode's title is not only the shortest in the original series, it is also the only one that is rendered on-screen in italics. * In the final scene, Kirk refers to "Space Central," another early name for Starfleet Command. It is reused in in another guise, as Vulcan Space Central. Cast * John Arndt (Fields) was a regular extra; he also played unnamed crewmen in and and Sturgeon in . When Arndt appeared in , his character was named Fields. * Jim Goodwin's character, Lt. John Farrell, was referred to as a "communications man" by Harry Mudd, and Magda learned how to contact the miners on Rigel XII from him. After being a navigator in and , Farrell is at the communications section in this episode, his final appearance in the series, although he still wears the gold command shirt. * Melanie and Lisabeth Shatner are the daughters of William Shatner and Gloria Rand. * Steven McEveety is the son of director Vincent McEveety. * Scott Whitney is Grace Lee Whitney's son. * Darlene and Dawn Roddenberry are the daughters of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry. * Phil Morris, son of star Greg Morris, would later appear in , Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager. * Keith Taylor replaced Rusty Stevens on Leave it to Beaver as Beaver's new plump friend, Harry. * James Doohan (Scotty), George Takei (Sulu) and Nichelle Nichols (Uhura) do not appear in this episode. * It was on the Friday night end-of-the-week party after filming this episode that Grace Lee Whitney (Janice Rand) was sexually assaulted by a member of the show whom she identifies only as "The Executive" in her autobiography The Longest Trek. She was fired soon after and her descent into a very messy life began, which she eventually recovered from and became a Jewish Christian. * The security guards simply disappear during the middle of the episode. David Ross reappears after McCoy tests the vaccine. John Arndt can be seen in the background in the final planet scene. Probably to save make-up costs, neither one of the guards has any blotches from the disease. Story * The hook - a planet that is not only Earthlike, but also an exact copy of Earth - never really figures into the plot. (Compare Hodgkin's Law of Parallel Planetary Development.) Presumably, an Earth duplicate was used in this episode simply because it would have been prohibitively expensive to create an entirely alien culture. Nonetheless, this plot point has led to speculation, mostly in the form of fan fiction, about how this planet came to be. This is also discussed in William Shatner's book Preserver. * Two significant plot points – the discovery of the radio station that sent out the automatic SOS and the discovery that the children will soon run out of food – are mentioned in voice-over log entries but not depicted. Presumably this was due to time and cost restraints. * In his first volume of Star Trek episode adaptations, James Blish supplies a backstory that is vastly superior to that of the "identical Earth" premise depicted in the television episode. Blish wrote that Miri's planet is the fourth planet orbiting the star 70 Ophiucus, and is a beautiful Earth-like planet having one large and two smaller continents connected by islands. Ophiucus IV (or Ophiucus 4 – Blish never names the planet) is located between twelve and fifteen light years from Earth and had been the first planet outside Earth’s solar system to be colonized, in this case by refugees from the so-called "Cold Peace" in the early 2100s, about 500 years before the events depicted in the television episode. These colonists were isolationists who violently repulsed the first attempt to contact them by a later expedition from Earth, and so no further contact was attempted. As it turned out, the Ophiucus system was in a "backwater" part of the galaxy that subsequent years of Earth-based space exploration passed by, and so the belligerent colony was easily ignored and almost forgotten. Around 300 years before the events shown in Miri, scientists on Ophiucus IV developed the experimental life-prolongation project that resulted in the deaths of every adult on the planet. Yet despite their close proximity, the distress signal sent by the colony didn’t reach Earth because Ophiucus IV stood between Earth and the center of the Milky Way, whose radiation created interstellar static that drowned out the SOS signal the colony had directed towards Earth. Sets and Props * If not the first, this is one of the first episodes to feature location shooting. * The planet-side exterior sets are the exteriors from , redressed. * This is the first appearance of McCoy's portable biocomp, which he will use later in . Yeoman Rand uses a piece of equipment that is possibly the portable electron microscope requested from the ship. This can be seen in later episodes, as well – in fact, it strongly resembles the device Scotty uses when he is controlling the view screen playback in . * The alley in which Spock and the guards have debris dropped on them is seen again in , when Kirk and Spock are accosted by the policeman. * Kim Darby was much older than thirteen or so when she played this role (she was 19), which was probably why she wore such baggy clothes. * DeForest Kelley displays a feeling of sad reverence as he gently handles the abandoned tricycle on the planet. Effects * The signal coming from the planet can be heard in The Outer Limits episode, "The Man Who Was Never Born". * The Earth sphere model from this episode is reused later in (painted green and printed backwards) and (painted a hazy orange). Stock footage from this episode of the ''Enterprise'' orbiting "Earth" is reused in . * The planet has the exact same geographical configuration of its continents as modern Earth, only without any clouds. * This is not only the shortest episode title in the original series, but it is also the only title that is rendered on screen in italics. However, the end credits are not in italics, and the font style seen there was never used again. Production Timeline * First draft: * Final draft: * Airdate: * US LaserDisc: April 1985 * Japan LaserDisc: * VHS 2nd release: - ISBN 6300213161 * Region 1 DVD 1st release: * Region 1 DVD 2nd release: * Remastered airdate: Remastered Information Image: Miri Earth remastered.jpg|Miri's Earth gets a CG face lift Image:Miri's North America on screen.jpg|North America on screen Image:Departing Miri's homeworld.jpg|The Enterprise leaves orbit The remastered version of "Miri" was first aired in many North American markets as a "bonus" episode during the weekend of , alongside . These were the first episodes to be "remastered" by CBS Digital and featured a flawed CG-model of the Enterprise that was eventually replaced. http://trekmovie.com/2007/06/23/miri-remastered-reairs-this-weekend/ The episode is notable for the replacement the original, highly unrealistic shots of Miri's homeworld with brand-new computer-generated versions. The episode was reran (finally airing in some markets for the first time) on the weekend of . http://trekmovie.com/2007/06/25/miri-screenshots/ Links and References Starring * William Shatner as Kirk * Leonard Nimoy as Spock Guest Stars * Kim Darby as Miri * Michael J. Pollard as Jahn Featuring * DeForest Kelley as Dr. McCoy * Grace Lee Whitney as Yeoman Rand * Keith Taylor as a Little Boy (miscredited as playing "Jahn's Friend") * Ed McCready as a Boy Creature * Kellie Flanagan as a Blonde Girl * Steven McEveety as a Redheaded Boy * David Ross as Galloway (credited as "Security Guard #1") * Jim Goodwin as Farrell * John Megna as Jahn's Friend (miscredited as playing "Little Boy") Uncredited Co-Stars * John Arndt as Fields * Eddie Paskey as Leslie * Irene Sale as Louise * Jon Dweck as a Boy Who Stole Communicators #1 * Scott Dweck as a Boy Who Stole Communicators #2 * Iona Morris as a Girl with hat * Phil Morris as a Boy in Army helmet * Darlene Roddenberry as a Dirty-Face Girl (in Flowered Dress) * Dawn Roddenberry as a Little Blonde Girl * Melanie Shatner as a Brunette Girl (in Black Lace Dress) * Lisabeth Shatner as a Little Girl (in Red-Striped Dress) * Scott Whitney as a Small Boy Stunts * Mike Miles as McCoy's stunt double References 1960s; Bartlett Stable; Biggs' Toys; biocomputer; distress signal; foolie; grup; Life Prolongation Project; microscope; Miri's planet; nitrogen; onlies; oxygen; Palmerton Cafe; Rusk Hotel; vaccine; virus External Links * |next= |lastair= |nextair= |lastair_remastered= |nextair_remastered= }} Category:TOS episodes de:Miri, ein Kleinling es:Miri (episodio) fr:Miri (épisode) nl:Miri (aflevering) sv:Miri (avsnitt)